Hello Everyone,
this should not be a thread about assign guilt to bugs that animals are starving. In my case I think problems are because of game limitations and my by design management "issues". This should be about some observations regarding feeding behaviour and large habitats and some suggestions regarding how to improve this maybe.
So first some information about my habitat.
Animals : round about 252 Greater Flamingos
Land : 9920 m2
Water : 12382 m2
4 Keeper only for this habitat.
2 Keepers have cleaning assigned.
2 Keepers have feeding assigned.
Known facts which makes it harder for the keeper to feed
Why did I choose this layout anyway:
Cleaning behaviour:
The two keeper clean the habitat both at the same time and it looks like they are very busy. I did not verify this but it really seems to be that they do not leave the habitat because of the big workload even if they are tired. But currently I'm happy with their work. No problems with this at the moment
Feeding behaviour:
I have 16 food enrichment items placed (currently to less for all the animals, but I think I need to reduce the number of animals anyway). I was following my keeper for two feeding rounds (right after the first keeper left because he was very tired and I called the second keeper immediately).
The Keeper goes to keepers hut to prepare food for his first round and starts going to the first food enrichment. What I then recognized is that he does not go from one to the next closed one. He goes cross country what causes him lots of time and energy. Also I see that sometimes, when he was on the way to the next enrichment or while he was filling one food enrichment item, other food enrichment items got filled too (attached I numbered the feeding order for the first and second round, same numbers means they were filled same time or right after but only one was really used by the keeper). Also the keeper does not have always the same route.
Right after he finished putting all the food somewhere, he leaves the habitat to go right to the keepers hut again to prepare food for the second round. Starting the second round (not sure if right before or right after filling the first food enrichment) I got the message that animals are hungry. So the keepers are more then very busy with this number of animals. After his second round he goes to the stuff room to get some rest and I need to call the other keeper immediately for the third round.
Maybe I could handle to care for more animals when I place the keepers hut in the middle of the habitat and all the food enrichment items around and very close to it. But I could imagine that this will look more ugly then the current design (but I'm open to any ideas how to do this with a great design ).
However, I thought maybe this ideas would help to care for this kind of habitats or also for more animals then this:
It is not game breaking if these changes are not done. But I think these changes could help everyone who wants to try handling large habitats with lots of animals
this should not be a thread about assign guilt to bugs that animals are starving. In my case I think problems are because of game limitations and my by design management "issues". This should be about some observations regarding feeding behaviour and large habitats and some suggestions regarding how to improve this maybe.
So first some information about my habitat.
Animals : round about 252 Greater Flamingos
Land : 9920 m2
Water : 12382 m2
4 Keeper only for this habitat.
2 Keepers have cleaning assigned.
2 Keepers have feeding assigned.
Known facts which makes it harder for the keeper to feed
- Habitat is match larger then animals need
- Much more animals a Zoo may realisticly take care of
- Food enrichment is not close to the gate and all over the habitat
- Keepers hut is on the right side of the habitat (maybe center would be better)
Why did I choose this layout anyway:
- I don't like to have all the food enrichment at one spot right to the gate. Especially for this number of animals you need lots of food enrichment (each of them can take care for 13 or 14 animals "only").
- I want to try to care for the maximum possible group size of 500 Greate Flamingos
- I will loose space when start to decorate the habitat
Cleaning behaviour:
The two keeper clean the habitat both at the same time and it looks like they are very busy. I did not verify this but it really seems to be that they do not leave the habitat because of the big workload even if they are tired. But currently I'm happy with their work. No problems with this at the moment
Feeding behaviour:
I have 16 food enrichment items placed (currently to less for all the animals, but I think I need to reduce the number of animals anyway). I was following my keeper for two feeding rounds (right after the first keeper left because he was very tired and I called the second keeper immediately).
The Keeper goes to keepers hut to prepare food for his first round and starts going to the first food enrichment. What I then recognized is that he does not go from one to the next closed one. He goes cross country what causes him lots of time and energy. Also I see that sometimes, when he was on the way to the next enrichment or while he was filling one food enrichment item, other food enrichment items got filled too (attached I numbered the feeding order for the first and second round, same numbers means they were filled same time or right after but only one was really used by the keeper). Also the keeper does not have always the same route.
Right after he finished putting all the food somewhere, he leaves the habitat to go right to the keepers hut again to prepare food for the second round. Starting the second round (not sure if right before or right after filling the first food enrichment) I got the message that animals are hungry. So the keepers are more then very busy with this number of animals. After his second round he goes to the stuff room to get some rest and I need to call the other keeper immediately for the third round.
Maybe I could handle to care for more animals when I place the keepers hut in the middle of the habitat and all the food enrichment items around and very close to it. But I could imagine that this will look more ugly then the current design (but I'm open to any ideas how to do this with a great design
).However, I thought maybe this ideas would help to care for this kind of habitats or also for more animals then this:
- If keepers could feed animals togehter, like they clean a habitat together (maybe by assigning single food enrichment items to a workzone instead of a full habitat?)
- If keepers, instead of going cross country to the food enrichment items, try to use the shortest way to get to all of them
- Food enrichment items for more then 13-14 Greater Flamingos (this is more animal specific because especially these can be a huge group)
It is not game breaking if these changes are not done. But I think these changes could help everyone who wants to try handling large habitats with lots of animals
